Author: Umakant Mishra
Abstract:
The dialog boxes are useful in case of displaying warnings,
errors, confirmations etc. in special situations. A typical dialog box is
displayed in a small window with some text message along with a few options for
the user to select. However, there are certain difficulties associated in programming
and implementing a conventional dialog box, such as, severe programming effort,
rigidity of the hard coded message, obscuring screen space and so on. There is
a need to overcome these difficulties of the dialog box to make them more
efficient and useful.
The modality of the dialog boxes also creates some
limitations. While modal dialog boxes needs to be closed explicitly by the
user, modeless dialog boxes can grow in number and become difficult to control.
Thus, an ideal dialog box should be deprived of all the above-mentioned
drawbacks. The dialog box should not obscure the screen. The user should be
able open multiple dialog boxes but without obscuring the screen.
This article analyses 5 interesting inventions on dialog
boxes selected from US Patent database. Each invention tries to overcome some
limitations of a conventional dialog box and provides some innovative features.
Each solution is also analyzed from a TRIZ perspective.
Keywords: TRIZ, Software Inventions, Graphical User
Interface, Software inventions, Software Patents, Inventive Problem Solving,
GUI, Dialog box, Warning box, alert box, display screen
Umakant Mishra, Inventions on Dialog Boxes Used in GUI,
(December 6, 2006),
Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=949247
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